GA 648 | Discovering Lean in High School with Ted Pendergrass

Most lean practitioners spend their careers trying to change the minds of adults who have been doing things the same way for decades. Ted Pendergrass decided to start earlier. Over 20 years coordinating a career technical education program at a California high school, he brought 5S, practical problem-solving, and Yellow Belt certification to students who had never heard of lean. The conversation covers what actually stuck, what surprised him, and what the rest of the lean community could do to help.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How a cabinet maker’s instinct for efficiency led to lean teaching (4:57)

What happens when high schoolers 5S their Google Drives (6:57)

Why practical problem solving opens students’ eyes more than any other unit (9:06)

How student tours reveal whether lean is actually taking root (12:22)

Why education is not the most lean process and what chunking has to do with it (13:34)

How to teach students to use AI as a tool rather than a crutch (15:53)

Why CTE programs are the right entry point for spreading lean (19:46)

What a Yellow Belt certification does for a student in a job interview (21:51)

How the California Partnership Academy model keeps students engaged and career-ready (24:18)

Why getting companies inside schools changes what students believe is possible (29:00)